The latest Planetary Post with Robert Picardo is about Space Robots in Antarctica –

While Picardo speaks to Astronauts and fans on a Star Trek cruise ship, one of our other board members, Dr. Britney Schmidt toughs it out at the South Pole to research how one day robots could work underwater on ice moons.

Here is a recent panel discussion at NASA JPL about the first US satellite, Explorer 1, launched 60 years ago on Jan.25, 1958:

Explorer 1 marked the start of the Space Age for America, and heralded the study of Earth from space. The JPL-built satellite confirmed the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts, the very first space science discovery. Explorer 1’s success was only the first of an array of Earth missions that have mapped and probed our planet’s lands, waters and atmosphere on scales ranging from the millimeter to global views. This conversation and multimedia journey spanned from the dawn of Earth space science to today’s modern fleet that is providing vital information in understanding the changes taking place on the only planet humans can yet call home. For more info on Explorer 1, please visit https://explorer1.jpl.nasa.gov

A dark cloud of cosmic dust snakes across this spectacular wide field image, illuminated by the brilliant light of new stars. This dense cloud is a star-forming region called Lupus 3, where dazzlingly hot stars are born from collapsing masses of gas and dust. This image was created from images taken using the VLT Survey Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope and is the most detailed image taken so far of this region. [Hi-res images]

A dark cloud of cosmic dust snakes across this spectacular wide field image, illuminated by the brilliant light of new stars. This dense cloud is a star-forming region called Lupus 3, where dazzlingly hot stars are born from collapsing masses of gas and dust. This image was created from images taken using the VLT Survey Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope and is the most detailed image taken so far of this region.

In the star-forming region Lupus 3, in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), dazzlingly hot stars are born from collapsing masses of gas and dust. This short podcast showcases a new picture of this dramatic object, created from images taken using the VLT Survey Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It is the most detailed image taken so far of this region.

The Lupus 3 star forming region lies within the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), only 600 light-years away from Earth. It is part of a larger complex called the Lupus Clouds, which takes its name from the adjacent constellation of Lupus(The Wolf). The clouds resemble smoke billowing across a background of millions of stars, but in fact these clouds are a dark nebula.

This wide-field view shows a dark cloud where new stars are forming along with cluster of brilliant stars that have already burst out of their dusty stellar nursery. This cloud is known as Lupus 3 and it lies about 600 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). It is likely that the Sun formed in a similar star formation region more than four billion years ago. This view was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. [Hi-res images.]

Nebulae are great swathes of gas and dust strung out between the stars, sometimes stretching out over hundreds of light-years. While many nebulae are spectacularly illuminated by the intense radiation of hot stars, dark nebulae shroud the light of the celestial objects within them. They are also known as absorption nebulae, because they are made up of cold, dense particles of dust that absorb and scatter light as it passes through the cloud.

Famous dark nebulae include the Coalsack Nebula and the Great Rift, which are large enough to be seen with the naked eye, starkly black against the brilliance of the Milky Way.

This zoom sequence starts with a view of the central parts of the Milky Way. We close in on a region in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). The final view is a combined image from data from both the VLT Survey Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. It shows a dark cloud where new stars are forming along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already burst out of their dusty stellar nursery. This cloud is known as Lupus 3 and it lies about 600 light-years from Earth. It is likely that the Sun formed in a similar star formation region more than four billion years ago. Credit: ESO/R. Colombari/Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: Astral electronic.

Lupus 3 has an irregular form, appearing like a misshapen snake across the sky. In this image it is a region of contrasts, with thick dark trails set against the glare of bright blue stars at the centre. Like most dark nebulae, Lupus 3 is an active star formation region, primarily composed of protostars and very young stars. Nearby disturbances can cause denser clumps of the nebula to contract under gravity, becoming hot and pressurised in the process. Eventually, a protostar is born out of the extreme conditions in the core of this collapsing cloud.

The two brilliant stars in the centre of this image underwent this very process. Early in their lives, the radiation they emitted was largely blocked by the thick veil of their host nebula, visible only to telescopes at infrared and radio wavelengths. But as they grew hotter and brighter, their intense radiation and strong stellar winds swept the surrounding areas clear of gas and dust, allowing them to emerge gloriously from their gloomy nursery to shine brightly.

These two stars are still very young — so young that nuclear fusion has not yet been triggered in their cores. Instead, their brightness is caused by the conversion of gravitational energy into heat as their turbulent cores contract.

Understanding nebulae is critical for understanding the processes of star formation — indeed, it is thought that the Sun formed in a star formation region very similar to Lupus 3 over four billion years ago. As one of the closest stellar nurseries, Lupus 3 has been the subject of many studies; in 2013, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatoryin Chile captured a smaller picture of its dark smoke-like columns and brilliant stars (eso1303).

Niamh is on Mars and a member of Crew 173, on a long duration mission to investigate new ways of growing food in this arid foreign land. As their 2 year mission comes to an end, one crucial experiment remains for Niamh. But will she overcome her personal struggles or put the whole crew and the mission in danger?

A highly visual exploration of future interplanetary human exploration, Shaw and her creative team create a new world order, reminding us of the power of the collective, the fragility of the solitary human and the united will behind all major breakthroughs. Because we may one day leave the cradle of Earth, but we will always be human.

The show about Niamh’s dream to go to Space has been inspired by Elon Musk’s grand design for a future interplanetary civilisation, testimonies of ESA employees, and Niamh’s personal space journey.

3. Wednesday, Jan.31, 2018: Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.

The astronomer, Scott Tilley, spends his free time following the radio signals from spy satellites. On this occasion, he was searching in high-Earth orbit for evidence of Zuma, a classified U.S. satellite that’s believed to have failed after launch. But rather than discovering Zuma, Tilley picked up a signal from a satellite labeled “2000-017A,” which he knew corresponded to NASA’s IMAGE satellite. Launched in 2000 and then left for dead in December 2005, the $150 million mission was back broadcasting. It just needed someone to listen.

Scientists who had worked previously on the IMAGE ( Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) project are hoping to resume their studies with the satellite, which had been quite productive:

Prior to its failure, IMAGE was already considered a successful mission. The half-ton satellite’s instruments served as a sort of telescope, providing a global view of charged particles captured in Earth’s magnetic field. IMAGE’s instruments captured energetic neutral particles ejected by collisions of atoms in the inner magnetosphere, creating a broad-scale picture of that region and its interactions with the sun. It’s a capability that has never been replaced, Reiff says. “It is really invaluable for now-casting space weather and really understanding the global response of the magnetosphere to solar storms.”

During its extended mission, however, IMAGE’s signal winked out just before Christmas in 2005. The mission had been working perfectly up to that point; NASA eventually attributed the loss to a misfire of the controller providing power to the satellite’s transponder. It remained possible, however, that IMAGE could reset itself during points in its orbit when Earth eclipsed its solar panels for an extended time, draining its batteries. Such eclipses occurred last year—and 5 years ago—perhaps triggering its rebirth.

a bright, blinking satellite now orbiting Earth, visible to the naked eye in the night sky. Launched on #StillTesting, The Humanity Star is designed to encourage everyone to look up and consider our place in the universe.

More about the project:

Visible from space with the naked eye, the Humanity Star is a highly reflective satellite that blinks brightly across the night sky to create a shared experience for everyone on the planet.

Created by Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck, the Humanity Star is a geodesic sphere made from carbon fibre with 65 highly reflective panels. It spins rapidly, reflecting the sun’s rays back to Earth, creating a flashing light that can be seen against a backdrop of stars.

Orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes and visible from anywhere on the globe, the Humanity Star is designed to be a bright symbol and reminder to all on Earth about our fragile place in the universe.

The sphere will stay in orbit for about 9 months. You can use the tracking app on the website to find when it will pass over your location.

Master Replicas uses 3D printing, hand painting, and other techniques to produce finely detailed models. Here is a video on how they created a replica of the Moon’s Tycho Crater, the first in their Space Terrains line:

The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. They will be used to search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches. This nighttime view shows the three ExTra domes in the foreground and many of the other telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory behind. [Hi-res images.]

A new national facility at ESO’s La Silla Observatory has successfully made its first observations. The ExTrA telescopes will search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches. Astronomers now have a powerful new tool to help in the search for potentially habitable worlds.

The newest addition to ESO’s La Silla observatory in northern Chile, Exoplanets in Transits and their Atmospheres (ExTrA), has made its first successful observations. ExTrA is designed to search for planets around nearby red dwarf stars and study their properties. ExTrA is a French project funded by the European Research Council and the French Agence National de la Recherche. The telescopes will be operated remotely from Grenoble, France.

The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. They will be used to search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches. This view shows one of the three ExTrA in its dome. [Hi-res images]

To detect and study exoplanets, ExTrA uses three 0.6-metre telescopes [1]. They regularly monitor the amount of light received from many red dwarf stars and look for a slight dip in brightness that could be caused by a planet passing — transiting — across a star’s disc and obscuring some of its light.

“La Silla was selected as the home of the telescopes because of the site’s excellent atmospheric conditions,” explains the project’s lead researcher, Xavier Bonfils. “The kind of light we are observing — near-infrared — is very easily absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, so we required the driest and darkest conditions possible. La Silla is a perfect match to our specifications.”

The transit method involves comparing the brightness of the star under study with other reference stars to spot tiny changes. However, from the ground it is difficult to make sufficiently precise measurements this way to detect small, Earth-sized planets [2]. By using a novel approach that also incorporates information about the brightness of the stars in many different colours, however, ExTrA overcomes some of these limitations.

The three ExTra telescopes collect light from the target star and four comparison stars and that light is then fed through optical fibres into a multi-object spectrograph. This innovative approach of adding spectroscopic information to traditional photometry helps to mitigate the disruptive effect of Earth’s atmosphere, as well as effects introduced by instruments and detectors — increasing the precision achievable.

Because a transiting planet will block a greater proportion of the light from a smaller star, ExTrA will focus on targeting nearby examples of a specific kind of small, bright star known as M dwarfs, which are common in the Milky Way. Such stars are expected to host many Earth-sized planets, making them prime targets for astronomers looking to discover and study distant worlds that could be amenable to life. The nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is an M dwarf and has been found to have an orbiting Earth-mass planet.

The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. They will be used to search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches. This view shows one of the three ExTrA domes with its access door open.[Hi-res images]

Finding these previously undetectable Earth-like worlds is only one of two key objectives for ExTrA. The telescope will also study the planets it finds in some detail, assessing their properties and deducing their composition to determine how similar to Earth they could be.

“With ExTrA, we can also address some fundamental questions about planets in our galaxy. We hope to explore how common these planets are, the behaviour of multi-planet systems, and the sorts of environments that lead to their formation,” adds team member Jose-Manuel Almenara.

Bonfils is excited for the future:

“With the next generation of telescopes, such as ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, we may be able to study the atmospheres of exoplanets found by ExTra to try to assess the viability of these worlds to support life as we know it. The study of exoplanets is bringing what was once science fiction into the world of science fact.”

Notes

[1] The telescopes and their mounts were supplied by Astrosysteme Austria, the domes come from the German company ScopeDome and the infrared camera was made by the US company Princeton Instruments with the detector array from the Belgium company Xenics. Additional information about the facility is available here.

[2] This approach, known as differential photometry, involves observing the target star along with other stars nearby in the sky. By correcting for variations that are common to all stars due to the Earth’s disruptive atmosphere, more accurate measurements can be obtained for the target star. However, the dips in light caused by Earth-sized planets are so slight that even this technique is not always sufficient.

Welcome to the first official episode of TMRO:Science! Hosted by Lisa Stojanovski, Athena Brensberger and Jade Kim, TMRO:Science expands on many of the topics we cover in TMRO:Space. Live episodes air the first Saturday of each month at 20:00 UTC.

This week the crew talks about the impact that micro gravity has on the human body and how astronauts keep fit in space.

(New York City, N.Y.) January 17, 2018 — We have film down to a science at The 2018 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, which announced today the full lineup of critically acclaimed films, exclusive premieres, panel discussions and virtual reality installations. The electrifying sixth annual event will feature appearances by show business heavyweights Armand Assante, Charles Baker, Vincent Pastore, Tom Sizemore, Melvin Van Peebles, Chuck Zito and more special guests. Screening in the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, the festival will run from February 23-25, 2018.

This year’s festival has expanded its tribute to the father of science fiction, Philip K. Dick by broadening its scope of official selections. “Every year our films cover different themes of the PKD spectrum,” said Daniel Abella, the founder and director of the festival. “This event focuses heavily on inner worlds, transhuman realities and other types of films including speculative fiction, magical realism and surrealism. Just like PKD, we are very eclectic in our thinking and do not subscribe to one single unitary form of entertainment.”

The festival will feature appearances by numerous award-winning actors, filmmakers, scientists and innovators who are among the most successful individuals in the entertainment, medical and technology industries. “Real human exchange between ​the stars and the audience is a wonderful experience going back to classical Greece,” said Abella. “We are social creatures and need to be with others to find communion and transcendence.”

Abella added that the festival’s mission to represent society’s issues stands for the work and views of its namesake. “PKD was a modern-day prophet who foresaw the collapse of humanity under the colossal weight of data, technology and ecological devastation,” he said. “Narrative themes in these films are more effective in shaping popular thinking than a new review or manifesto. In our own modest way, the festival represents a resistance against monolithic hypercaptialism and rapacious technology. Think of it as technology with a soul.”

We welcome back Paul Hildebrandt the director of an upcoming Apollo 8 Documentary, “First to the Moon”. Paul needs to raise $100,000 in 30 days to make this movie a reality as well as create digital copies of archived film footage to make freely available.

2. Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018: Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.

3. Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018: 12-1:30 pm PST; 2-4:30 pm EST; 2-3:30 pm CST. Dr. George Sowers, formerly a VP and Chief Scientist at United Launch Alliance, is our guest. Now with The Colorado School of Mines, we will be talking about a variety of timely issues.

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Several orbital launches happened in the past week. Here are videos of some of them:

** Rocket Lab, a small company based in the US and New Zealand, had its first successful orbital launch over the weekend with its second Electron rocket. (liftoff at about 15 minutes into the video):

The Electron, built using carbon composite structures and 3D printing technologies, was developed solely with private investment. The three satellites orbited by the vehicle belonged to two private companies: Planet and Spire Global.

This video was taken by the Expedition 53 crew on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots were taken on November 5, 2017 from 22:29:56 to 23:03:24 GMT, on a pass from the South Atlantic Ocean to Kazakhstan. The video begins with a calm, dark sky and the moon’s reflection lingering on the tops of clouds and the ocean surface. While travelling over Africa, the ISS passes several lightning storms that flash below like paparazzi. The lightning subsides when the ISS reaches the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and the Zagros Mountains that curve around off the coastline. The pass continues over Central Asia and Kazakhstan with heavy clouds, ending just before sunrise.

This video was taken by the Expedition 53 crew on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken on September 28, 2017 from 07:38:56 to 07:55:34 GMT, on a pass from the northern Pacific Ocean, just south of Alaska, to the Gulf of Mexico, south of Florida. The north-facing camera catches the Aurora Borealis over Canada as the ISS travels from northwestern United States southeast. Large cities like Chicago, Nashville, and Atlanta stand out as the ISS flies southeast toward Florida.

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It’s becoming increasingly common for students in colleges as well as in grade schools and high schools to built small satellites and see them go into space before they graduate. Here is a story about one such project in Oregon: Student Satellite …. Radio | OPB

The Oregon Small Satellite Project is an ad hoc group of students and educators working on a nano-satellite or “cubesat” to hand off to NASA to launch into space next year. Andrew Greenberg is the faculty advisor for the Portland State Aerospace Society, the group heading up the project. He joins us to talk about the project and its mission.

China’s first nano-satellite with primary and middle school students involved in the development and building process will be launched into space Friday.

The satellite, named after late Premier Zhou Enlai, was sent from its production base in Huai’an Youth Comprehensive Development Base in east China’s Jiangsu Province to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gansu Province Monday, where a CZ-11 solid fuel rocket is scheduled to put it into orbit Friday.

Twenty teenagers who participated in the development project accompanied the transport group to the launch center and will witness the lift-off.

The CubeSat mission, called the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE), houses a small, energetic particle telescope to measure the flux of solar energetic protons and Earth’s radiation belt electrons. Launched in 2012, CSSWE has involved more than 65 CU Boulder students and was operated for more than two years from a ground station they built on the roof of a LASP building on campus.

The instrument on CSSWE, called the Relativistic, Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment (REPTile), is a smaller version of REPT, twin instruments developed by a CU Boulder team led by LASP director and Nature paper co-author Daniel Baker that were launched on NASA’s 2012 Van Allen Probes mission.

“This is really a beautiful result and a big insight derived from a remarkably inexpensive student satellite, illustrating that good things can come in small packages,” said Baker. “It’s a major discovery that has been there all along, a demonstration that Yogi Berra was correct when he remarked ‘You can observe a lot just by looking.'”

“These results reveal, for the first time, how energetic charged particles in the near-Earth space environment are created,” said Irfan Azeem, a program director in the NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.

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While not as challenging or time consuming as building a real satellite, this lesson plan on making a satellite model is nevertheless quite instructive for students: Build a Satellite Activity | NASA/JPL Edu.

Is there a future in orbit? This timely book reveals the state of spaceflight at a crucial juncture in the industry’s history.

It’s the 21st-century and everything about the space industry is changing. Rather than despair over the end of American manned missions and a moribund commercial launch market, private sector companies are now changing the way humanity accesses orbit. Upstarts including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are building a dizzying array of new spacecraft and rockets, not just for government use, but for any paying customer. At the heart of this space revolution are spaceports, the center and literal launching pads of spaceflight. Spaceports cost hundreds of millions of dollars, face extreme competition, and host operations that do not tolerate failures―which can often be fatal.

Aerospace journalist Joe Pappalardo has witnessed space rocket launches around the world, from the jungle of French Guiana to the coastline of California. In his comprehensive work Spaceport Earth, Pappalardo describes the rise of private companies in the United States and how they are reshaping the way the world is using space for industry and science. Spaceport Earth is a travelogue through modern space history as it is being made, offering space enthusiasts, futurists, and technology buffs a close perspective of rockets and launch sites, and chronicling the stories of industrial titans, engineers, government officials, billionaires, schemers, and politicians who are redefining what it means for humans to be a spacefaring species.